We need more than religion and guns

Barack Obama has been called "elitist" for suggesting that bitterness about economic troubles causes the working poor to cling to guns and religion.

The point isn't that guns and religion are bad. The point is that for millions of lower- and middle-class Americans, concern about religion and guns unreasonably overrides their own self-interest.

As Thomas Frank showed in his 2004 book "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," support for conservatives is often strongest in the poorest counties. Through clever marketing, conservative strategists convinced millions of lower- and middle-class voters that conservatives will defend them against the elitist and decadent values of secularism, gun control, gay rights, abortion, Hollywood, consumerism, taxation and Big Government.

That is odd, because under conservative policies, corporations and the rich get tax cuts, government handouts and lenient regulations.

The working class gets guns, religion and layoffs. Their sons and daughters (poorly educated in underfunded schools) are sent on extended tours of duty to fight and die in a debilitating and disastrous war for oil. Gasoline is nearing $4 a gallon and cars guzzle gas, but public transportation is inadequate.

Americans subsidize Big Oil and send hundreds of billions of oil dollars overseas each year. Though we spend far more per capita on health care than other nations, for tens of millions of Americans health care is unaffordable. Our petroleum-based food supply is laden with sugar, fat and hazardous chemicals -- encouraged by farm subsidies that stimulate overproduction to ensure low commodity prices for giant food companies.

Meanwhile, many are losing their homes because of the subprime mortgage crisis -- a result of the deregulation of the mortgage industry -- while corporate executives rake in unconscionable salaries.

To fix what ails America, we need more than religion and guns. We need competent government.

We need government to protect us from such diseases as avian flu, to immunize our children and to ensure the safety of our food, medicines, air, water, toys, cars and planes. We need government to fight crimes such as identity theft and child molestation. We need government to provide education, public transportation and regulation of banking.

We need government to maintain parks, playgrounds and libraries. We need government to come to the rescue for disasters such as hurricanes and epidemics. We need government to run a single-payer health care system that will be cheaper, fairer and more effective than the current system. We need government to promote a green economy based on renewables, to address global warming and free us from dependence on imported oil.

We need a government-provided safety net to protect those too sick, old or young to care for themselves. And we need a progressive tax system that reverses the increasing concentration of wealth and that eases the burden of debt on children.

"Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." These words from Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address continue to be a mantra for many Americans.

"Vote for me, I'll lower your taxes" is a second conservative mantra that, like the first, extols policies that benefit mostly the well-to-do. Americans have realized the lie behind the conservative mantra "war on terrorism." It's time for Americans to realize the lies behind these other conservative mantras.

Call me elitist. Guns and religion have their proper uses. Misused, they can wreak havoc.